July 18, 2022 |
Except for the White House, no one is calling Joe Biden’s mission to Saudi Arabia to ask the desert Kingdom to produce more oil a success. The photograph of Biden fist-bumping the Saudi prince when they met Friday comes after the president ignored a request from the American Petroleum Institute to tour domestic energy production sites.
While U.S. domestic oil production is hamstrung with no-drill mandates, restrictive regulations and limited access to capital, Saudi Arabia is operating close to full capacity. The United Arab Emirates is pumping at capacity. Following Friday’s meeting, the president said he made progress in encouraging the Saudis to produce more oil for U.S. consumption.
Saudi officials contradicted the president. They indicated no sense of urgency over the United States’ self-created problems. Former Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., Prince Turki Al Faisal, said the president came to the table after hurting himself on energy issues.
In addition to being the former Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., he was also head of Intelligence Operations for the Kingdom.
Another Saudi official, Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs was inside the room where negotiations took place on Friday with the American President. Jubeir, who appeared on CNN with Wolf Blitzer after the meeting, said Biden did not ask for more oil and no assurances were given by the Saudis.
CNN cut off al-Jubeir before he could finish his thought that the U.S. is facing a shortage of refinery production, not oil production.
The Saudi minister of state reiterated the view that Saudi Arabia puts a higher priority on long-term market stability than short-term responses to market fluctuations to determine whether more oil is required or less.
If President Biden received assurances of Saudi cooperation on energy production, then it happened behind closed doors. Publicly, the Saudis appear indifferent to the president’s political problems at home.
